Bruins need third line to jell in a hurry

Rich Peverley, seen here battling with Joffrey Lupul, did not have
a shot on goal in Boston's Game 2 loss to Toronto. (Getty
Images)

If you had to tell the tale of the Boston Bruins’
offensive efforts through two playoff games, the most fitting
introduction would be as follows: I’ve got some good news,
and I’ve got some bad news.

After an arduous season plagued by lengthy individual slumps,
the line of David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton is playing
its best hockey at just the right time. Horton, revered for his
clutch playoff performance in 2011 but absent from the 2012
postseason due to a concussion, has two goals so far. Lucic, this
season’s whipping boy, has three assists. Their Czech pivot
has 1-3-4 totals to lead the way.

On another positive note, half of Boston’s goals have come
from their band of blueliners. Wade Redden was the surprise star of
Game 1 with a goal and an assist. Johnny Boychuk tallied in each of
the first two tilts against Toronto. His last goal prior to that
was way back on opening night in January against the New York
Rangers.

Unfortunately, this is the part in the story where we leave the
land of sunshine and rainbows, and dive head first into some murky
waters.

The B’s have yet to get a goal from a forward
outside of the Krejci line. Those 10 individuals (counting Kaspars
Daugavins, who was replaced by Rich Peverley in the lineup for Game
2) have combined for a whopping three points, all via assists (Brad
Marchand, Greg Campbell, Dan Paille).

That trend will have to end ASAP if the Bruins hope to avoid
returning to Boston for Friday night’s Game 5 facing a
deficit in the series.

The ever-consistent trio of Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and
Tyler Seguin, to their credit, has had chances. The three forwards
have 30 shots on goal thus far, with No. 19 accounting for half of
them. But the other seven forwards that have seen action in the
series have put just 13 pucks on Leafs goalie James Reimer.

While the fourth line deserves a bit of a reprieve, given their
general expectations and limited ice time, that leaves the third
line – one of the Bruins’ key strengths in the past and
especially during their Cup run – as the group most worthy of
the label of underachievers.

Many will jump to blame Jaromir Jagr for doing squat early on in
the series, but given how his linemates fared during the regular
season, it’s hard to expect that line as a whole to produce
at even strength. Chris Kelly buried just three goals in 34 games,
one of which came on the man advantage. Peverley had six tallies,
with two coming on the power-play, in 47 tilts. They combined for a
minus-17 rating on the year.

So what’s the solution?

Well, at 41, no one can expect Jagr to be able to create
everything on his own at this point without support. The future
Hall of Famer still has a fairly lethal shot and is a gifted
playmaker/puck-possessor, but it seems pretty obvious that those
skills are all for not if Peverley – zero shots on net in
Game 2 after being a healthy scratch – and Kelly aren’t
playing up to snuff in the offensive zone alongside him.

“To his defense, it’s important to have some
cohesion with your linemates and stuff like that, and our first two
lines have been pretty, I guess, been together for a long
time,” Claude Julien said when asked about Jagr’s
lacking production. “They’re playing well,
they’re generating stuff, so right now it’s about
trying to build some chemistry with some players and we keep trying
to find players to complement him a little bit.”

One possible way of making the pieces fit together better would
be trying Horton on that third line. His willingness to go to the
net thus far in the playoffs could be better suited for the styles
of Peverley and Kelly than Jagr’s game is. However, messing
with what’s working – the Krejci line – is
probably something Julien doesn’t want to risk.

So how do the Bruins get Jagr involved?

For starters, some more power-play time would do wonders. The
B’s had just one power-play opportunity in Game 2, which was
negated almost instantaneously by a Brad Marchand penalty, leaving
Jagr with just nine seconds of ice time on the man advantage. If
the Bruins can do a better job of drawing penalties, it’ll
behoove them and No. 68 greatly.

But ultimately, Boston needs Jagr’s two linemates to snap
out of their season-long funks. While it’s not a full-fledge
pipedream, expecting them to rediscover their form from the
previous two seasons is probably overly-wishful thinking at this
point.

Nevertheless, even by their 2013 standards, Kelly and Peverley
have to do more going forward. While one can point to the countless
chances the Bergeron line has failed to cash in on, at least the
opportunities have been there. Logic dictates that, eventually,
they’re going to get on the score sheet.

At the rate Boston’s third line is going, they could wind
up being one of the prime culprits for an early exit if a major
turnaround doesn’t happen soon.